A Bold and Subtle Wound
by OctaviaWithStarsForEyes
Summary: This was a mistake. This was the biggest mistake she had made in a very long time. They stared at each other for several beats, motionless. Like they were afraid to breathe and send the other one fluttering away. "Hey," Puck said finally. Sabrina spun on her heel and fled. / Also known as I'm obsessed with Puck coming back and Sabrina being difficult.


**Hello readers, and welcome to my triumphant return to the SC fandom. I know it's been quite a while, but I'm marking this as my comeback, as I've just started a multi chap for it, although god know Ill never finish it.**

 **anyway, enjoy some angst and drop a review.\**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

"Sabrina! Sabrina! You know what day it is, right? You know who's coming home today?"

Sabrina rolled over in her bed as Daphne's squeal split the sleepy aura of a Sunday morning. To her great annoyance, sunlight was spilling into the room and soaking her poor eyes in brilliant light.

"What time is it?" She grumbled, mashing her pillow over her face.

Daphne, who was clearly having none of it, snatched the pillow out of her grasp and began performing a bizarre, excited cha cha with it.

"You know what day it is, right?" She repeated, ignoring her sister's irritable mutters. "You know who's coming home?"

Of course Sabrina knew what day it was. She'd spent the past few weeks deliberately ignoring the date circled in bright red pen on her calendar. She'd spent it escaping the sound of his name, and any mention of his adventures.

It had been no easy feat, but somehow in her delusions, it had gotten into her head that perhaps if she pretended he wasn't real, he wouldn't come. The higher you got, the harder you fell, she supposed.

"C'mon, Brina! Aren't you excited?" Daphne encouraged, plopping down next to the blonde. "Doncha think things have been boring? Haven't you started to miss that romantic tension between you and-,"

" _Don't_ ," Sabrina barked, suddenly awake. "-say it. Just don't, Daph."

Ignoring the betrayal in her sister's dark eyes, she hauled herself out of bed and swept past Daphne.

"I'm taking a shower," she grunted. "Then I'm going out."

"What?" the younger girl yelped. "You're going to miss their arrival! At least do it for Uncle Jake, if you won't do it for-,"At Sabrina's warning scowl, she hastily stopped herself. "At least do it for Uncle Jake!"

The bathroom door slammed shut in response.

…

True to her word, Sabrina was out of the house in a speedy twenty minutes. She shoved her hands deep in the pockets of her jeans, cursing and muttering to herself about the still-frigid weather. It was March, winter was over. Apparently Ferryport hadn't gotten that memo.

Boy did she wish she'd brought a jacket, but she'd spent the whole time rushing out the door. She had been jumping at every sound, afraid she wouldn't disappear in time. When the mailman rang the doorbell, she'd nearly jumped out the window.

Her damp hair had soaked a wet patch down the back of her cotton shirt, which wasn't doing her any good either, and to top it all off, she had forgotten her wallet. Looked like there would be no hot coffee for her this morning.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she retrieved it, hoping one of her human friends was contacting her about hanging out.

 **Daphne: Where are u?**

 **Daphne: They're here, you should come home.**

Sabrina hesitated for one millisecond, and then she firmly tapped out a reply.

 **Sabrina: I'm not coming back home until he's gone. Don't text me until then.**

 **Daphne: …**

 **Daphne: I'll send him after you. You know he can find you in five minutes**

Sabrina gritted her teeth and clenched her phone so hard her knuckles whitened.

 **Sabrina: You wouldn't dare**

 **Daphne: Try me Sabrina.**

Oh Christ. Daphne was using punctuation, she must have been pissed. Too bad, because two people could play at that game.

 **Sabrina: If you send him, I'll tell dad you've been sneaking out to meet Duncan.**

 **Daphne: How do you even know about that?**

 **Sabrina: Queen of Sneaks. Duh.**

Even from this end, she could feel her sister's irritation.

 **Daphne: At least come back for dinner.**

She considered it for a brief moment, thumbs hovering over the screen.

 **Sabrina: No promises.**

There was no reply from Daphne. She _was_ pissed. Well, good. She shouldn't be such a meddler, Sabrina thought stubbornly. It was none of Daphne's business whether or not Sabrina chose to see him when he visited.

Brushing it off, she walked on to find the local coffee shop, The Bean Scene. It served two purposes, one to get her out of the biting cold, and two to throw off any who might've been sent to tail her.

Sabrina didn't have her wallet, but luckily enough, she happened to know the boy behind the counter had a crush on her. As expected, Peter Kasinsky was more than happy to allow her to hang out at The Bean Scene, even though she didn't order anything.

She sat there for the better part of the day, texting her human friends and tastefully ignoring Peter's timid attempts to start conversation. Perhaps she should've made more of an effort to engage as thanks for allowing her to stay, but she was on edge and irritable from the way her morning had begun.

But alas, eventually even Sabrina got bored sitting in her little corner of the shop. Thoughts began worming their way into her mind. Was he looking for her? Should she go back and see him? Should she hide somewhere else? A nagging voice at the back of her head urged to go to him.

Maybe it was best to just go home, she convinced herself. She could sneak in through the window to her bedroom and hide out. That way, even if Daphne sent him after her, he would never find her. Yes, that was what she would do. He'd never suspect she was just sitting in her own bedroom.

Sabrina waved goodbye to Peter, deflecting his offer to maybe grab lunch sometime, and escaped The Bean Scene.

Every sound set Sabrina starting in jittery anxiety as she headed home. The closer she got, the more her heart pounded, and the more her mental war raged on. _Runrunrunrun_ No, turn around! _No hurry up he's so close_ No!

Sabrina stopped outside the front door, hands shaking just a little as she reached for the doorknob. _This is stupid,_ she scolded herself, _You live here. This is your house. Suck it up, Grimm!_

Summoning her courage, Sabrina turned the doorknob and stepped in.

Before she even had a moment to collect herself and prepare, she found herself looking into a pair of wide teal eyes, glittering like the facets of a gem. All the air escaped her lungs, and her mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air.

Shit.

This was a mistake. This was the biggest mistake she had made in a very long time. They stared at each other for several beats, motionless. Like they were afraid to breathe and send the other one flying away.

"Hey," Puck said finally.

Sabrina spun on her heel and fled.

"Sabrina, wait!"

…

The cold slammed into Sabrina like a truck of concentrated winter. It stung and nipped at her skin, sending her hair whipping around her face. She ignored the way the mass of blonde obstructed her vision and strode forward, trying to contain her wild emotions. They ran rampant through her veins, flashing from fury to sorrow to pain to hysteria. She couldn't think, she could feel, she couldn't see, oh god, oh god, oh god.

"Sabrina, please just stop for a second!"

His voice was deeper, she noted almost angrily. The gasbag was still growing. The thought nearly sent her collapsing into tears.

He had no right.

"So, that's it? You're seriously just going to ignore me?" Puck asked, clearly exasperated. "Where are you even going?"

She didn't deign to respond, not trusting the lump of lead sitting in her mouth that was her tongue. Her throat was tight, her face hot.

"At least let me give you a jacket," he offered. "You look like you-,"

"I don't need your jacket!" Sabrina snarled, whirling around to stab a finger into Puck's chest.

She'd never felt such anger, so full of brimming lava and seething coals. It was intoxicating and terrifying.

"Two years," she hissed, trembling with rage and pain. Her voice was wobbling, her head spinning. "Two years ago, you told me you were going to Peru! And how many emails? How many letters?"

He looked ashamed now, expression taut with guilt. "...Seven."

"Seven letters! I thought-," Sabrina tried to repress the furious tears pooling in her eyes. She blinked them away before they could fall, and gathered herself. "I thought you were dead."

Puck looked at a loss, his beautiful features slack with surprise.

"So no," she growled, fingernails digging crimson crescents into the palms of her hands. "I don't need your damn jacket, and I sure as hell don't need you!"

Light-headed with the sensation of unloading the weight of those words, she stumbled off. Christ, she was so… confused. She wanted to say more.

She wanted to tell him how life had dulled to tepid in his absence, how everything around her became compared to Before. Before he left.

She wanted to confess that she'd fallen asleep in between every letter of his, clutching her aching chest and letting sorrow leak from eyes squeezed shut. How she'd avoided offers from Michael B., and Freddy from Geometry and Martin the lockermate, and Peter Kasinsky because none of them compared to his crooked smile and oasis-like eyes.

How she'd had to read A Midsummer's Dream for English, and she'd spent the whole time thinking how funny Puck would find it. Then how she'd annotated any page featuring him with notes to tease him about him in a letter she would never find the will to write. And after that how she'd slept with the book under her pillow, because she'd still had hope back then that he would keep his promise to be back soon.

But she didn't say any of those things, just walked away.

It should've felt better to spit all that anger at him, to see him flinching back from the venom dripping from her lips. Instead her bones sang out to go to him, to forgive him and cling to him so tightly he could never leave again.

She resisted the temptation and sniffled irritably. Stupid faery-boy making her cry all these stupid tears.

A touch grazed Sabrina's shoulder and she instinctively grabbed her attacker and flipped him over her hip, sending him crashing into the ground.

"Ow," he said weakly, stained glass wings splayed out beneath him. "I guess I deserved that."

Some tormented part of Sabrina almost wanted to laugh. She released his wrist and turned away.

Just those barren seconds of staring into his luminous eyes, hearing his voice, touching his warm skin, was enough to send her mind and body into a frenzy. Like an addict with the shakes, she was breathing hard and twitching as she resisted his pull.

"Sabrina, c'mon," Puck protested. "Can we talk about this?"

She stopped in her tracks, flexing her fingers as she debated slugging him versus running while she had the opportunity. To their equal surprise, she did neither.

She swallowed down her anger and turned around. She deserved answers, and by god, she was going to get them.

"Okay," she said. "Okay, let's talk about it."

"Really?" He looked surprised at her agreement. "Did you wanna just-, I mean we can find a park bench-,"

"There." Sabrina looked over at a tall tree towering in the middle of their squat little town which huddled close to the earth where it was safe. "We can talk there."

They walked in silence to the base of the tree. Puck looked over at her, extending a tentative hand. His wings fluttered in silent invitation.

Sabrina ignored him and began climbing up the tree. Branches and leaves caught on the soft flesh of her arms and face, and the rough bark left the pads of her fingers raw, but she kept climbing. Puck, of course, chose to fly instead of climb. God, he just didn't get it, did he?

When her head was poking out of the canopy of foliage, Sabrina settled herself on a sturdy branch. He hovered close to her, watching carefully.

"You wanna start?" He offered.

For a long moment she said nothing, studying the world below her swinging feet. At this size, it was still just big enough for her to know she was tied down to it.

"Why didn't you write?" She asked at last, not taking her eyes off the couples strolling through the park, blissfully unaware of Sabrina trying to hold the sky up and keep everything from crashing down.

He winced and scratched the back of his head. "I meant to… But I guess I just forgot. It never really felt like-, like a priority, I guess. There was just so much to see out there."

He seemed to know how bad that sounded, so she didn't bother trying to scold him. All the anger in her had melted to her ankles and was now slowly dripping out her shoes.

"Your turn."

Puck finally decided to sit on a branch instead of hover. Maybe his wings got tired.

"Did you think of me when I was gone?" He ventured hesitantly.

Sabrina considered her answer. The old Sabrina would have snorted and answered, "In your dreams, Smelly." But she wasn't so sure she was that Sabrina anymore. On the other hand, she wasn't quite ready to admit how often she did.

She settled for a vague, "When I had time. Why did you come back?"

"Homesickness," he tried. Lie.

She shook her head.

"We were in the neighborhood." Lie.

Sabrina stared at him for a long moment, and Puck finally broke, releasing a pent-up breath and looking down. "Fine, we came back so Jake could visit Briar's grave on their anniversary. That's why."

Ow. That one hurt.

"Did you think of me while you were gone?" She pushed, meeting his gaze.

He shifted uncomfortably and forced a mechanical laugh. "Isn't it my turn to ask the question? Nice try, Grimm."

She arched an eyebrow.

"Yes, okay? I did. Sometimes. Not like, often. Like, a normal amount of time," he answered, ears going red. Sabrina might have laughed in any other circumstance.

"Why did you ask me to wait if you didn't want to come back?" She asked.

"This isn't how the game works, Grimm. It's supposed to be-,"

She scowled, anger making her toes curl in her ratty high tops. "Why, Puck?"

Sabrina remembered their last goodbye, two years ago. She had been fifteen, and he had pressed a honeyed kiss to her lips, pleading with her to wait for him.

" _I'll be back before you know it, Grimm_ ," he'd said, tossing her a wink that made her knees weak. At the time, she had been giddy and smitten. Now the memory was tainted with bitterness.

"I meant to come back sooner," he said earnestly. "But, I don't know. I just sort of fell in love out there."

"With?"  
"I don't know. Everything. The world is… so beautiful, Sabrina. So full of magic." He tilted his head to look at the rapidly fading sun. Pinks and golds reflected back on the angles and planes of his face. Genuine wonder thrived in those tortuously beautiful eyes, and Sabrina felt her heart sink.

She recognized that expression. It was the one she used to wear when he was around. Before. Absolute, head-over-heels adoration.

"I just wish you had told me," she said softly.

Puck turned to look at her, oceanic eyes bright. "And I wish you'd been there with me."

It wasn't that she wasn't still angry, she was. Not writing had been a jackass move. But she understood now. Two years ago, she would have chased Puck to the ends of the earth if he'd asked her to. And now he had that too. Just not with her. His heart wandered, craving wide open spaces and adrenaline and adventures at every turn. It didn't belong to her, it belonged out there. She had to learn to accept that.

But maybe in time.

It was this thought that gave her hope. A just-barely smile curved on her lips, shy and unfamiliar.

"Let's go rejoin the others," Sabrina said. "We're going to miss dinner."

Puck searched her face, like he thought she was pulling some kind of trick. But after a moment's hesitation, he offered his hand once more. This time she let him fly her down to the ground. She even let him get away with slipping his jacket off and giving it to her, though that was more for practicality reasons.

They walked home together, breaths puffing out in short clouds in front of their faces. When they reached the doorstop, Sabrina looked up at Puck.

"I'm still mad," she assured him flatly. Her voice softened and she glanced down. "But I get it. I'm okay with it."

He stared down at her with the same quiet awe she had seen in the treetop. One hand reached up to touch her cheek, ever so gently. "You're amazing."

Sabrina scoffed and batted his hand away. "Don't push it, Goodfellow. I've still got half a mind to knock your teeth in."

Puck grinned widely, rubbing the back of his neck. "Fair enough."

And despite herself, Sabrina laughed.

…

Daphne watched Puck and Sabrina step into the house, both of their cheeks glowing with cold. The smiles lingering on both their faces confirmed what Daphne had suspected.

She shot her sister a wide smile when Sabrina caught her eye, giving her a thumbs up. Sabrina approached her, scowling.

"Don't say a word," she warned the younger girl, who mimed zipping her lips and locking them.

But Daphne didn't have to say anything. Because even as Sabrina sat down at the dinner table with the others, she seemed totally unaware of the fact that she was still wearing Puck's jacket.

Daphne repressed a triumphant grin and sat down between Granny and Jake.

"What are you looking so happy about, _liebling_?" Granny asked her, eyes twinkling.

Daphne sighed happily, watching Puck carefully shoot her sister glances when he thought she wasn't looking. (The hue of her face said she definitely hadn't missed this fact.)

"Oh nothing, Granny," she replied at last. "I just think everything is going to be fine."

"I never doubted it," Granny smiled, and Daphne toasted her with a glass of homemade sparkling kumquat cider.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **Eh? Maybe? yeah?**

 **Leave a review and tell me whatcha think!**


End file.
